Actress Laurence Badie, known for her unique voice, has died at the age of 96

A television figure in the 1980s, known for her dubbing of cartoons, she also had a long career in theater and cinema.

The actress Laurence Badie, a television figure in the 1980s, known for her unique voice and who also had a long career in theater and cinema, died Thursday January 11 at the age of 96. “in Brittany”, announced his agent, Patrick Goavec, to AFP.

Dubbing cartoons, game shows, classical repertoire, boulevard theater and even cinema, Laurence Badie had the gift of making people laugh, with a high and unique tone of voice. Without necessarily knowing her face, generations remember the high-pitched voice she lent to the character of Véra in Scooby-Doo.

A voice and roles

The older ones tend to remember this petite, cheeky blonde, a laughing little face with a snub nose, who had the heyday of The Academy of Ninethe hit midday television show in the 1980s.

In her long career, she has also appeared in more than a hundred films, series and television films. Often secondary roles, but sometimes with great filmmakers, from Sacha Guitry to François Truffaut via Vincente Minnelli, Alain Resnais and Vittorio De Sica.

With her full name Laurence Dolores Badie-Lopes, she was born on June 15, 1928 in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris. She studied for a year at HEC but preferred theater, and took lessons with the actor Julien Bertheau.

A lucky “shit”

During an audition, she gets confused and drops a “Oh shit !”. “You have to take the one who said ‘shit'”, decides the director, a certain Georges Wilson, who brings her to Jean Vilar’s TNP (National Popular Theater), where she stays for almost ten years.

Already with a predilection for comic roles. “The best years of my life! Where I learned everything, in contact with the great actors: Gérard Philipe, Philippe Noiret, Maria Casarès.”

She also works for the cinema, where she is spotted in Forbidden Games (1952), by René Clément. She was quickly given roles as a maid. “As people lack imagination, as soon as I had to play a little maid, I was hired. I played a lot of them.”

The boulevard theater will be his universe for decades. She plays in particular in plays by Guitry. But, above all, the public flocked for a year and a half to see her alongside Louis de Funès in Oscardirected by Pierre Mondy.

On the dubbing side, besides Véra in Scooby-Dooshe is the French voice of many other cartoon characters like Casper the friendly ghost or the dog Rocky.